Waiting for a no-show

Arriving early at Steamer's for a lunch date gave me my choice of table.  I chose a chair just east of the patio door; it gives an unfettered view of the trains as they burst from the Point

The Sauk River near Rockport

Defiance tunnel, and of The Narrows.  

It was only on a trip to the central California coast this month that I began sketching again.  Then last Sunday, while waiting for friends to leave a nearby natural-history lecture,  I drew on a postcard a Sauk River scene near Rockport, .  I added watercolor.   With time still on my hands, I did a sketch on canvas-board with acrylics, the first I'd touched that medium in at least two years.

The Narrows, looking north from Steamer's

Today I had only a Pentel Rollerball pen and my pocket notebook.  But they were enough to capture a view of The Narrows.   My friend didn't show, so I finished the sketch, ordered lunch and counted 95 freight cars rolling south and a cup of coffee later, 85 hopper cars in a northbound coal train.

I take my entertainment where I find it.